Imaginary Heroes: Liberty
by foxface15
Summary: Ana McClain is the second product of Project: Rebirth, the experiment that created Captain America. What she doesn't know is that she has more purposes than just being a guinea pig. Flows from Pre-Avengers on.
1. The Beginning

**Imaginary Heroes**

**Liberty**

**Ana McClain is the second product of Project: Rebirth; the experiment that created Captain America. This story begins before Captain America is found in the ice.**

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**First off, thank you for deciding to read my story. **

**Second, I'm sorry, because I will probably cut off my stories at random places, because I will run out of ideas for that particular story. But I can't help it, when I can't think of any more material, I can't write for that story, because if I do, it will probably turn out bad. But, if I do come up with any more ideas, I'll be sure to start writing again as soon as I can. Also, please don't criticize me. If I irritate you, please keep it to yourself. Feel free to leave suggestions, but only that.**

**Thank you,**

**Foxface15**

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**I started writing these stories because I am a superhero freak, and every new movie that I see, I come up with my own character for the movie. After a long time, it became too much for my mind to bear, and I had to find a way to get the stories out of my head. Then I found fanfic. I have already typed several other stories, so please take the time to read them too!**

**I hope that you enjoy these stories! **

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_I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with __**Liberty**__ and justice for all… _

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"Director," an intern said over the loudspeaker, "we have everything ready for the procedure, sir."

"Thank you," Director Nick Fury replied into the microphone on the table in the main meeting room where the Avengers were assembled.

"What kind of 'procedure'?" Agent Natasha Romanoff, also known as the Black Widow, inquired.

"That's why I called this meeting." Director Fury replied. "We are starting up Project: Rebirth again."

"You mean the experiment that created Captain America, right?" Agent Romanoff asked.

"Yes. That's the one. They still haven't found Captain America; _if _he can be found, and we could really use someone like him on the team." Director Fury explained.

"But they used all of the super serum on Steve Rogers." Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, said. "My father told me stories about that when I was a kid."

"Yes, we did use all of the serum that we had on the first experiment, and up until now, we haven't been able to create more. We were only able to replicate it recently." Director Fury explained.

"But…Who would volunteer for this?" Asked S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clint Barton, also known under the alias of Hawkeye.

"I don't know. We would want a younger subject; someone that would be around for a long time, and preferably someone with no emotional ties, because it would be easier for them to join us, because we would seem like the better option." Director Fury inquired.

"What about someone from an orphanage?" Asked Agent Barton. "No emotional ties to family members, usually young. It would be an ideal choice."

"That would work." Director Fury said, nodding his head.

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Director Fury POV

I was standing in the corner of the orphanage when I saw her. I was watching Agent Coulson talk with the other teenagers in the orphanage about the military, seeing who looked the most interested. I noticed a movement from the corner of my eye, and I turned to see a small girl sitting in the back of the room, watching the rest of the group.

I tilt my head to the side curiously and walk over to the girl. When she sees me coming, she looks up at me and pulls her shoulders in protectively, which makes her look even smaller.

"Hello." I said, trying to get her to loosen up a little.

She smiled a little and said a low 'hi' in return.

"Why aren't you over there with the others?" I ask.

"I overheard them talking about the army." She whispers. "If you're recruiting then I'm already out of the drawing."

"I wouldn't say that." I tell her. "What's your name?"

"Ana McClain." She says a little more boldly.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Director Nick Fury, but you can call me Nick." I reach out my hand. She tentatively takes it. "How old are you Ana?" I say, taking in her small form.

"16." She replies shyly. Wow. Only 16? She is young, but then again, that was what we were hoping for when we narrowed down the choices for the program.

"So, Ana, would you be interested in government work?"

"I would be," She replied hesitantly. "But I don't think that the government would want someone like me. You know – small, weak. That kind of stuff."

"Well," I say. "Size isn't everything. It's got more to do with willpower than anything else." She looks up at me, hanging on my every word. "Do you want to protect your country, Ana?"

Her eyes light up. "Yes sir." She says, and then her face falls. "But I still don't think that I'm the one that you want." She says solemnly and looks toward the other girls.

I had started to think that she might be the right person, but this had confirmed it. I had heard once that the fact that you didn't think you were ready was the reason that you were.

"Ana, would you be interested in joining my team?" I ask.

"Really?" She says in shock. "You would want _me_? Weakness and all?"

"Trust me." I reply. "Things can change."

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Ana POV

I sat in my new room at the agency's headquarters, which just happened to be on a helicarrier that I didn't even know existed. I was surprised when I was first brought here, if only by the sheer size of the carrier, and I can only imagine what I looked like when it lifted out of the water and flew. At first, I often got lost in the many hallways and floors of the carrier, and had to ask for directions. In my spare time, when I wasn't going through medical exams and training for the procedure, I even wandered around, and in a few weeks, I knew the carrier like the back of my hand.

I was waiting for Agent Coulson to come and get me for the procedure. I had met Phil when I first came here, and I liked him. He didn't seem like the whole 'government agent' bit. He was nice and he would actually talk with me about things other than why I was here.

I was still nervous, though. Phil was coming to get me for the procedure that would officially put me on the team. They were going to make me stronger, faster, and more able to help people. I was looking forward to that part, but first I had to go through the procedure, which I was dreading.

I realized that this was what I wanted, though. I was so used to being small and shy in the orphanage that I had buried my more outgoing and energetic side deep inside of me. I was looking forward to letting that side of me shine through more.

I got up and looked at myself in the mirror in my bathroom. I had on a military green tank top and a pair of grey shorts. I let my hair fall down, and then on second thought, pulled it back up into a ponytail.

I heard a knock on the door. Well, this was it. I took a final look in the mirror at my tiny self, and then walked to open the door. Phil stood there with a smile on his face.

"What's wrong with you?" I ask sarcastically.

"Oh, nothing, I'm just excited." He replies with a shrug.

"That _I'm _going through this?" I question, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yeah." He said, scratching his head. "Capt—oh! That reminds me. I have a present for you."

He pulls out a small piece of paper from his pocket and hands it to me. I take it and see that it is a photo of a young man. I look back up at Phil questioningly.

"You know you're not alone, right?" He asks.

"Alone?" I ask, my eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.

He hesitates. "You're not the only one who's been through the procedure."

"Really?" I ask.

"Yes. Back in the 40s, a man named Steve Rogers became the world's first super soldier."

"Wow." I say, and look back down at the photo. I notice that the man is dressed in an old timey military uniform. "This is him?"

"Yep." Phil replies.

I chuckle. "Maybe I could learn something from him. You know – hero stuff and what-not."

Phil's face falls.

"What?" I ask.

"He flew a plane into the artic in order to save us. They never recovered his body."

"Oh." I say.

Maybe that was what it meant to be a hero, then. To be willing to sacrifice yourself in order to save others. It was the one thing that I could learn from the only other person like me.

Wait, – I realized – I was about to be one of a kind. The only super soldier alive at the moment. And I had no one to help me figure out how to be a great hero. I feel a sudden pang of fear. _How will I be able to do this by myself? _I wonder.

We sit in silence until Phil jumps up. "Well." He says, back in a cheerful mood. "We don't want to be late, now do we?"

"Of course not." I say, still nervous, as I slip the photo in my pocket and follow him out of the room.

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I follow Phil down a narrow hallway and into a small room. My eyes are immediately drawn to the center of the room, where a large machine that looked like a bed with a huge circular shape surrounding the bed.

"Ana," Phil said, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turn in his direction and see that he is talking to another man. "This is Tony Stark; his father conducted the procedure on Steve Rogers."

Tony extends his hand and I shake it. "Nice to meet you." I say.

"You too." He says with a smile.

"Tony will be overseeing the procedure." Phil explained.

"Yeah," Tony said with a chuckle. "My father used to tell me stories about this."

Tony explains what I will be going through, which only succeeds in making me more anxious.

"Well," Tony says. "Ready?"

"I'm ready to get this over with." I say.

I walk over to the machine and lay down. Tony comes over and puts an IV in my arm that is attached to a syringe.

"Morphine." He says simply, as he pushes the plunger on the syringe down. I immediately feel the effects of the morphine.

"Alright." Tony says, and then flips a switch on the machine. 4 metal clamps come down on my arms and legs, and I see that each has 2 vials of blue liquid attached to them.

"Ready?" He asks me again.

I take a deep breath, and nod my head.

Tony presses a button on the machine, and clamps poke into my arms and legs. I gasp as my body starts to burn, and then I feel a change. I feel my muscles get stronger, and a calming coolness takes over me. _It must be the morphine,_ I think.

I look back up at Tony, still breathing hard. He smiles shyly down at me.

"It's almost over." He promises. "Now's the fun part. We get to stimulate your cells, so that they will grow."

He walks over to the wall and puts on a pair of safety glasses. I also notice that Phil, who is standing in the corner of the room, puts on a pair. Tony pushes a button on the wall, and the giant circular shape that surrounds my bed begins to expand, engulfing me in a mechanical cocoon. Right before it completely conceals me; I close my eyes and try to prepare myself for what's to come. It's too late to turn back now.

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Phil Coulson POV

I watch as the machine closes over Ana, and Tony and I exchange a glance. I give him a small nod to continue. He reaches over and turns a dial. The machine lights up, and starts to spin around the bed.

I watch as the machine spins faster and faster around the bed, until it makes me dizzy to watch.

The machine finally slows to a stop, and both Tony and I edge little closer to the bed. The machine starts to raise back, and I lift my goggles off my head and sit them on the table. I walk over to the bed, and see Ana.

The change is evident. She has bulked up, but in a healthy way. Her limbs are more defined and stronger. I can see the muscle growth, but it is not profound, which is good. She can be more of a secret weapon; not appearing to be a threat until you see her in action.

She starts to shift around on the bed, and Tony rushes over to remove the IV from her arm. She sits up on the bed and rubs her head.

"Wow," She says. "That was something."

That broke the tension between us. Both Tony and I chuckle.

"How do you feel, Ana?" I ask.

"Fine, I guess." She says as she stands up. It looks like she's grown quite a few inches as well. She now is nearly as tall as me. "Different, but in a good way." She looks around in confusion. "Am I taller?"

Tony laughs. "Yeah. Well," He says as he looks her over. "Everything appears to look good."

"Sweet." Ana says, more confident than before.

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Ana POV

I stood in front of the mirror in my bedroom, looking at myself.

The change was evident. I had definitely grown taller, I had noticed that when I stood up after the experiment. My body and muscles were much more defined, but I was pleased to see that instead of being bulky, I was still slim. I felt amazing, stronger than I ever had before.

I turned away from my mirror and sat down on my bed, trying to take it all in. I remember my picture of Cap. Steve Rogers in my pocket and pull it out, taking the time to look the picture over again.

I chuckle as I look at the picture. "Looks like it's just you and me, Cap." I whisper. "Well, just me."

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Over the next few weeks I went through training that all soldiers went through, except I breezed through it as if it was a 5 minute workout. I was surprised, even though I shouldn't have been. Being a super soldier did have its perks. I also met a few more people at the agency, like Agents Romanoff and Barton, who were some of the agencies secret weapons. Both of them were off on missions a lot, but when they were back on the carrier, we often trained together.

I also met Agent Maria Hill, another agent that worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. We got along good, and I liked to talk to her whenever I was up in the control center.

Apparently another good thing about being the only other super soldier in existence was that you got to learn everything about your counterpart. Agent Coulson brought up a bunch of tapes, photos, and everything else that involved Captain America. He even brought in comic books and trading cards. I guess that was why Phil was so excited when I went through the procedure; he was a huge Captain America fan.

I slowly but surely worked my way through everything, watching all of the tapes, flipping through all of the pictures, until I felt as if I knew Cap. Rogers personally.

I was actually a little confused when I started watching the videos. The first one that I picked up was labeled simply _P: R SS1._ I had learned from Phil that P: R stood for Project: Rebirth, but I didn't have a clue as to what SS1 meant.

I decided that before I went any further, I would find out what it meant. I scoped out Phil, who was on the bridge of the helicarrier.

"Hey, Ana." He said when he saw me walking up to him. "What do you need?"

"I was looking at the films you gave me, and I didn't know what it meant. The label said P: R SS1 and I know that P: R means Project Rebirth, but what does SS1 mean?" I asked.

He smiled at me. "Super Soldier One." He said matter-of-factly.

"So…" I say, "That would make me Super Soldier Two?"

"Exactly." Phil replied, a smile still on his face.

"Thanks." I say, and start to turn away, but Director Fury, who was standing at the main control center on the bridge, stops me.

"Ana, can I talk to you for a moment?" He asked.

"Umm, yes sir." I say, automatically thinking that I was in trouble.

We walk over to the back of the room, and I turn to face Director Fury.

"How's your training going, Ana?" He asks me.

"Fine. Why do you ask?" I reply.

He hesitates. "I've been thinking…"

_Oh no, what did I do? _I think to myself.

"Yes?" I ask.

"I've been thinking that you should be promoted to full military status." He replies.

"Really?" I ask, now knowing that I didn't do anything wrong.

"Yes." He tells me. "I think that it would only be fair to you."

"Thank you, sir." I say.

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True to his word, Director Fury officially gave me full military status. I finally felt as if I belonged here, among the people that had actually worked hard to get where they were today.

But if I took a trip out in public for some reason, I would wear my uniform. People would come up to me and thank me for my service, and I felt bad because I hadn't _done_ anything to deserve the praise that I received. It was a hollow feeling, and I hated myself for it.

I tried to blow it off, though, and eventually I was able to get past the bad feelings that were attached to the compliments.

But soon the feelings of belonging were replaced with depression, and being left out. Even though everyone treated me like I was part of the crew, I still knew that I was different, and here for a different reason. I felt left out, like I was the younger sister of everyone.

I tried to keep my feelings to myself, and mostly everyone didn't even know about my inner struggle to fit in. Only Phil noticed. He tried to talk to me whenever we saw each other, and made sure to check up on me. But he was gone a lot, on different missions, and I didn't see him often.

The only thing that I had to hold on to, to keep my sanity, was my picture of Captain Rogers. It reminded me that I wasn't the only one, even if I sort of was. It reminded me that someone else had been through the same things, and he had made it just fine, so why couldn't I?

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I was trying to fall asleep, but couldn't keep my mind quiet.

Phil had returned from a mission today to New Mexico, and I was glad to see him again. I had asked him why he had gone, but he said that it was for some sort of, what did he call it? _The Avengers Initiative?_ I asked him what it was, but he said that I would find out soon enough.

I had no clue what he had meant. When would I find out, and how did it involve me? If I was going to find out soon enough, then why hadn't they already told me?

I dozed off still thinking about my place in the agency, and wondering what exactly was SHIELD up to?

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"Ana. Wake up." I heard a voice say over me.

I open my eyes, only to find Phil standing over me. "Get up." He says again. "It's important."

I immediately sit up, wide awake. "What is it?" I ask.

"Director Fury called an emergency meeting. He specifically asked that you be there." Phil explained.

"Oh." I say as I climb out of bed. I look down at myself, still in my pajamas. "Should I change?"

"No, you're fine." Phil says as he leads me out of my room and down the hallway. Before I leave, I reach over to my nightstand and grab my photo of Cap. Rogers. I had taken to keeping it with me at all times.

"What's the meeting about?" I ask as I follow him.

"I don't know. It _was_ called on short notice." He says with a smirk. I roll my eyes.

I keep following him until we reach the main meeting room in the top secret wing of the helicarrier.

Phil opens the door and we walk in to the room where only Director Fury, Agent Hill and Agent Barton are seated. They all look at me when we walk in.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"Ana, take a seat." Director Fury tells me. I quietly sit down on the opposite end from them. Phil takes a seat.

Director Fury folds his hands in front of him. "You are aware of how Captain America disappeared, correct?" He asks.

"Yes." I answer slowly, not sure of where this was going. My eyebrows wrinkle in confusion.

Director Fury takes a deep breath, and I brace myself for the worst.

"Only an hour ago, a crashed plane was discovered in the artic." He says, looking up at me. My eyes widen in shock. "We have recovered Captain Roger's body, Ana."

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**And thus is the first part of ****Liberty****. Thank you for reading! And if you don't already know, I do have 3 other stories, so be sure to check them out! **

**Foxface15**


	2. Reclaimed

He's alive.

Captain America is alive.

I sit in awe in the main meeting room of the helicarrier as everyone in the room looks at me, gauging my reaction.

I look up at Director Fury. "He's alive." I whisper.

"Technically yes, his body was frozen in a cryogenic state when the plane crashed, but the serum kept him alive."

"He's alive." I whisper again.

"He'll be thawed out in a few weeks, Ana. He'll be brought back to New York, and that's where he'll wake up at." He sighs. "Ana, I need you to be his…modern day translator" He says, looking for the right words. "He's been frozen for 70 years. He needs someone to help him adjust to everything that's changed in the past 70 years."

"And I would be the perfect fit for the job." I state.

"Yes." He replies.

I sit there, still amazed that I'm no longer the only one.

"There is something else that I brought you here for, Ana." Director Fury explains.

I wrinkle my eyebrows in confusion, not knowing where he is going.

"Do you remember the team that I was talking about, when we first met?" He asks.

"Yes. The one I never heard of again after that?" I reply.

"Sorry about that." He says with a chuckle. "We had _other_ business to attend to." He sighs. "But yes, that's the one."

"It's called the Avengers Initiative." He continues.

"The one you couldn't tell me about." I say to Phil. He just looks back at me, a curious expression on his face. Then I remembered, he didn't know what was going on either.

"Ana, we want to officially make you part of the team." Director Fury says as Agent Hill gets up and walks over to a small chest in the back of the room. She opens the chest and retrieves a briefcase, then walks over to me and sits it down on the table.

I look up at Director Fury, who gives me a nod, and then back down at the briefcase. I take a deep sigh, and then open the briefcase.

Inside is what looks like Captain America's costume, except for a girl. I gasp, and lift it out of the box. I can see that it is custom fitted for me. I look back in the box to see a matching pair of gloves and boots.

But I notice something else at the bottom of the briefcase. I set my uniform aside and lift the gloves and boots out of the briefcase.

A smaller container sits on the far side of the briefcase. Cautiously, I lift it out of the briefcase. I click open two locks on the front of the container, and the lid pops open.

Inside is what looks like a bracelet, except that it is so long that it will go almost up to my elbow. It is a sparkling silver color, with red lines extending down the sides. I lift it out of the container and look at it in confusion.

"What is it?" I ask, not looking up from the device.

"Well, technically it's your shield, but it does a lot more than that. Tony Stark designed it." Director Fury explained.

"Wait." I say. "My _shield?"_

"Yes." Director Fury confirms. "Try it on."

I lift the bracelet out of the box and it clicks open down the side. I place my left forearm into the opening, and it closes shut around my arm. I wait for it to do something, but nothing happens.

"What do I do?" I ask.

"It responds to you." Director Fury explains. "When you need something, it will provide it for you."

"So, if I think that I need my shield, then it will come out?" I ask.

"Yes." Director Fury says.

"I look back down at my shield and focus on needing help. Suddenly a hologram of a screen comes up with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo comes up.

"What's that?" I ask.

"It's kind of like screen talk. A way to communicate with everyone." Director Fury says, shrugging.

I focus on not needing it anymore, and it goes away. _I want my shield._ I think to myself. _I want my connection to Captain America._

A glowing circle appears on the side of my bracelet opposite me, which is soon followed by three circles of red, white, and blue. A star appears in the center, but it extends to the edges of the shield, which I notice that makes it different from Captain America's original shield.

"Woah." Both Phil and I say at the same time. I look over at him, and he looks even more excited than me.

"There you go." Director Fury says.

"So," I say. "Is that all the surprises for tonight?"

"Well" Director Fury says, scratching his head. "There is one more thing, but it's more of a personal choice."

My eyebrows wrinkle in confusion. "And what would that be?"

"If you are to be on the team." Director Fury started. "You would need a codename for safety reasons."

"Like a superhero name?" I ask, suddenly excited at my promotion.

"Exactly." Director Fury says, smiling. "Like I said; personal choice."

I chuckle and look over to Phil, who is running his fingers through his hair and smiling.

"What?" I ask him.

"Oh, it's nothing." He says, looking at the table in front of him.

"You already had a name picked out for me!" I say, suddenly realizing his hesitation. "Didn't you?"

"I'm sorry, Ana." Phil says, turning his face away from me.

"It's okay. I know how into this you are." I say, reassuring him. "What was it?" I add, not having a name in mind.

Phil looks at me, hesitating. He sighs. "Liberty."

"Hmm." I say, not thinking it was half bad.

"What?" Phil says, worried. "You don't like it, do you?"

"No." I say. "I love it."

"Really?" Phil says.

"Yes." I say, turning to Director Fury. "Liberty. I am Liberty."

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I stand in my room, looking in the mirror at myself. I tried to resist, but after a few days, I couldn't help myself. I switched from my regular S.H.I.E.L.D. attire to my new uniform. I admired myself, taking time to notice the details in my uniform. It basically looked like the pictures of Captain America's uniform, but updated with modern day technology. It was the classic red, white, and blue, but with added flashes of silver on the arms. There was also an S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the side that classified me as an agent. My left handed glove was fitted so that my bracelet fit snugly on my arm. I also had a mask that covered my forehead and eyes, but didn't have and **A, **which I guessed fit since I didn't want a huge **L **on my forehead.

I felt like a hero, and I guess that I was one. In only a few weeks, I was going to meet my hero, the person I was created to succeed. And I guess that for a while, I was going to be his hero. I was going to help him fit into this new world that he was thrown into.

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I don't think that the few weeks that Captain America was being thawed out could've passed any faster. In truth I had visited him while he was frozen, and he looked exactly the same as in my picture. But I couldn't help seeing him that way, so I didn't visit often.

Director Fury oversaw him waking up, which I hear didn't go so well. I saw the news reports of him running out into the middle of Times Square, only to be surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Fury. But at least he was awake.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had provided him an apartment to live in for the time being, and luckily it was in New York City, a place where he could at least vaguely find his way around.

Phil had dropped me off in front of his apartment, and I took my time making my way up to his floor. I didn't want to rush this moment because I knew it would be an important first impression.

I stood for a minute outside of his door, wandering how this was going to happen. What was I going to tell him?

"Just do it." I whispered. "Make him understand."

_But what about you? _ My conscious argued with me. _What are you going to tell him about yourself?_

"I don't know." I whispered back, and then shook my head. "What's wrong with me?" I asked to no one in particular.

Before I could do anything else, I knocked on the door. The few seconds that passed were terrible and agonizing. Then the door opened, and I found myself face to face with Captain America.

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**So, any thoughts so far? Questions, comments welcome. **

**Also, I have drawings of Ana's uniform and bracelet up on tumblr. Link is in reviews.**

**Foxface15**


	3. Out of Time

"Hello?" He asks.

"Umm…" I mumble, taking him in. He looks just as he did in his photo, with blue eyes, blond hair, everything. He is wearing a flannel shirt and jeans that are held up with a belt, a look that to me looks as if it belongs in another time. And I guess that it does.

"Can I help you, miss?" He asks, his eyebrow raised.

I clear my throat. "Umm, hello, sir. My name is Ana McClain. I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."

"Really?" He says. "You don't look like the ones that I saw." He says, taking in my button-up shirt, skinny jeans, and sneakers.

"I know. But then again I'm not supposed to be a normal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent." I say all while my mind is screaming at him to tell him who I really am, _what_ I really am. I silently tell myself to shut up, making the excuse that he just woke up in a world he doesn't understand; he doesn't need an overload of information right now.

"Then why were you sent here?" He asks.

"I guess that you could say that I'm your 'modern day translator'. I'm here to help you understand the world, Captain." I explain.

"That sounds fun." He says sarcastically, but then chuckles.

"It will be, I promise." I say back, smiling up at him.

He returns my smile, and then jolts back to look at his apartment. He turns back towards me. "I'm so sorry, Miss. McClain. Why don't you come in and we'll talk?"

"It would be my pleasure." I say, taking him up on his offer.

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"How did it go?" Phil asked, walking into my room after I changed out of my normal clothes into my uniform.

"Great." I say enthusiastically. "We talked about how the world has changed, and I asked him some questions about himself, and then told him about myself. It was great." I ramble.

"Sounds great." Phil says, sitting down on my bed. "You seem happier than when you left."

"I_ feel_ happier." I say, giggling. "I mean, I got to meet Captain America. Who wouldn't be happier?"

Phil just smiles, but then his face becomes serious. "Did you tell him about, well, you?"

"No." I say, my face falling. "I—I just couldn't. He's been through too much right now. I couldn't force something like that on him."

"I see where you're coming from Ana, but he's going to find out eventually, and he may not be happy that you kept it from him all this time."

"I just hope that he isn't." I reply.

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Captain Rogers and I were walking around New York City. I was pointing out everything that might have changed in the past 70 years, and he was showing me what hadn't.

"I can't believe that shop was there in the 40's, sir." I say after he pointed out an old antiques shop.

"Ana, you don't have to call me sir. Please call me Steve." He insists.

"Steve." I say, trying it out.

"Much better." He says. He then looks ahead of us to an alleyway on the side of the street. "Oh, you see that alley?"

"Yeah. Why?" I ask.

"I got beat up down there once." He explains.

"Really? I say, looking down the alley as we walk by it.

"Yeah." He says.

"Why didn't you run away?" I ask, wondering his motives of choosing to take the beating that he must've received. I'd seen the pictures; I knew how incredibly small he had been before Project: Rebirth.

"Because if you start running, they'll never let you stop." He explains. "I don't like bullies."

"Me either." I say back, remembering how the older girls at the orphanage used to treat me before S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited me. I smile a little when I realize that we shared some of the same mindsets.

Steve shows me a little coffee shop that he used to go to back in the 30's before the U.S. joined the war.

We order our coffees and sit down at a little table near the window.

"Does it scare you how much things have changed?" I ask, looking out of the window.

"A little, but I know that it'll be okay, because I'll adjust." He says.

"That's a good way to think." I reply.

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"Have you told him yet?" Phil asks one day when I walk onto the bridge.

"I've been meaning to, but I can't figure out a way to say it right." I reply. "I mean, you can't just walk up to a person and say 'hey, I'm a super soldier too! Don't freak out!' It would scare him to death." I sigh. "I _need_ to tell him, I know that, but I don't know how to say it."

"You know what I said about that." Phil reminds me.

"Yeah." I reply. "I know."

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I guess that you could say that 6 months flew by, but it really didn't. I worked more in the agency, spent time helping Steve out, though I never found the nerve to tell him about myself.

It had come to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention that the Tesseract, a giant blue cube from Asgard, an alien planet, was acting strange. All I knew about it was that they kept it down in the basement of our New Mexico headquarters with Agent Barton watching over it. They had been studying it constantly since it was first discovered in the 1940's, but when it recently started acting up, Fury assigned even more protection to it.

I myself had been assigned to help Clint out guarding the Tesseract. I hated that I had to leave Steve behind in New York, having to fend for himself, but, well, duty calls, right?

I had the night shift, and so far, nothing had happened. Dr. Selvig was still trying to run tests on it, but to no avail. Clint, who had been there all day, said that he had been trying since morning to decipher anything from the cube, but all he got was a whole lot of nothing. I was sitting against a huge crate next to the wall, and Clint had gone up to his 'nest' as we liked to call it. He always said that he could see better from a distance. I looked up, and sure enough, Clint was perched in one of the metal support systems hanging from the ceiling. I turn my head to look back at the cube, which was still glowing a bright, neon blue color. But something seemed slightly off about it. It was almost as if I could see –stars?—through it?

Apparently Dr. Selvig noticed at the same time that I did, and after looking closer at the cube, which seemed to be _pulsing?_ now, he called an emergency evacuation of the facility. Director Fury, who had been at the New York base, was flying in to oversee the observation of the cube and make sure that the evacuation went smoothly.

I was still sitting down when Director Fury was led by Agent Hill into the room. I had asked several times whether or not the other agents needed my help with the evacuation, and had been denied every time, I was told to keep my post guarding the Tesseract.

I stood up, and Director Fury walked over to Dr. Selvig. He looked around curiously. "Where's Barton?" He asked.

"Up in his nest." Dr. Selvig replies, and Director Fury looks up to find Clint still in the rafters. He motions for him to come down.

"I thought I told you two to guard the Tesseract, not sit back and watch it." Director Fury says when Clint comes down, turning to include me too.

"You know I see better from a difference," Clint says. Director Fury turns to me, and I just shrug.

Suddenly the Tesseract sparks to life, nearly melting through its case. We all jump back, and I slide against the back of the crate I was sitting against, facing away from the cube. I peek around the corner, ready for any sort of attack.

The cube seems to be growing, swelling, almost. The air around us almost seems to be vibrating with energy. I look up to the rafters in the ceiling, which are shaking. The whole headquarters will come down if the Tesseract keeps this up.

I look back down, and see that Director Fury, Clint, Agent Hill, and Dr. Selvig have been blown against the back wall. They all look like they are trying to regain their balance from the sudden outburst of energy.

Suddenly I hear a loud boom, and turn back to look at the cube. To my amazement, it looks as is a portal is forming from the cube. A sudden blast of light erupts from the portal, and shoots across the room. It would only be like me to think that this is the most excited and scared that I've ever been in my life.

The light starts to take form around something, and I look closer to see that it looks like a –man? I try to lean closer without drawing attention to myself, and see that sure enough – as the light starts to fade, a form of a man kneeling starts to take shape.

Everything abruptly stops, and the silence is deafening. The cube returns to its normal glowing blue color, and the only proof that anything abnormal happened is the man kneeling where the portal was. He is wearing strange green, gold, and black clothes that look like they're made completely out of metal and leather. His long black hair is slicked back into spikes at the back of his neck, and he is holding a long golden scepter with a pulsing blue light at the top of it that somehow reminds me of the cube.

"Can I ask who might you be?" Director Fury, stepping forward, asks the man.

The man looks up at Fury, and slowly stands up. "I am Loki, of Asgard." He says with an air of authority. "And I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"I'll say." Fury says. I want to tell him to stop being sarcastic, that warning bells are going off in my head, but I don't want to give away my position.

Apparently Loki didn't like Fury's sarcasm either, because, whipping his staff towards him and releasing a pulse of blue energy, sends him flying across the room into the wall.

Clint is the first one to retaliate against Loki, but before he can release a single arrow, Loki knocks his bow away from him and grabs him hard enough to keep him from going after it. He looks down on him.

"You have heart." I hear him say to Clint, before raising his scepter to his chest, and a thin trail of blue flows from Clint's chest into his scepter. I watch in horror as Loki releases Clint, and he stays where he is.

_Why isn't he moving?_ I scream in my head. But as Clint turns to pick up his bow, I see that his eyes are glowing the same blue color as the light in Loki's scepter, and I realize that he must be under Loki's control.

Next, Loki turns to Dr. Selvig, and does the same. This time I watch as –when the thin trail of blue flows from his chest – Dr. Selvig's eyes turn the eerie blue color. I've never felt so helpless.

_You could've done something, Ana! Why didn't you! _I scream at myself silently.

Shots suddenly ring out from the back of the room, and I see Agent Hill and Director Fury shooting at Loki. He quickly orders Clint and Dr. Selvig to grab the Tesseract, and they rush out of the room before Agent Hill and Director Fury reach me.

"Ana get up!" Director Fury yells at me. "They have the cube! We can't let them get away!" I quickly get up and follow Director Fury and Agent Hill as they run out of the room after Loki. "Stop them!" Fury yells at any agents that could hear them. "They have the Tesseract!"

We reach the cargo bay, and Director Fury runs towards the helicopters while Agent Hill and I run towards the vehicles. Right as we reach the cars, we see Clint, Dr. Selvig, and Loki –who is standing in the bed of the stolen vehicle – take off towards the exit.

Agent Hill stops at a vehicle and climbs in, but I keep going and jump off the landing to run after Loki. I learned early after I became the second super soldier my new strengths, including that I could run faster than the average car could drive.

I could hear the rock above me start to crumble, and I think that my suspicions that the headquarters would cave in were coming true.

Soon I could see the car, and I pushed myself even harder to catch up. I heard Agent Hill coming up behind me, but I didn't stop. This was my first official fight. I wasn't about to give it up just yet.

I look up at the vehicle that is getting closer and closer, and Loki looks down at me, smirking with an evil grin.

"You foolish mortal." He says. "Do you not have any idea what you're up against?"

I let out a chuckle, not feeling winded at all. "Do you?" I ask.

He cowls at my response and points his scepter at me. I know what is coming, but I wait. Right as Loki unleashes the energy at me, I call my shield out, and I take the full force of the blast. The energy is deflected, but the force of the blast sends me flying backwards – right into Agent Hill's windshield.

The car starts to slide, but I manage to quickly crawl around and jump into the car.

"Ana," She yells, trying to see around the crushed glass, "I can't see!"

I realize what she is trying to say, and punch the rest of the windshield out so that she can see to drive us. In truth we hadn't lost much ground against Loki, but the headquarters was working against up. The power of the Tesseract had caused the building's foundations to shake, and now they were failing. The rock walls of the underground tunnel were crumbling around us, and I knew that if we didn't get out of there soon, we would be crushed.

Ahead I saw the tunnel opening, and so did Loki. He also knew that the building was coming down, and he knew that he would probably make it and we wouldn't. He turned around to smirk at us, and Agent Hill fired the rest of her clip at him. Somehow, he managed to evade the gunfire, and turned back towards the opening, right as they broke free of the tunnel, and the rocks fell in front of us and we rammed into the new wall in front of us.

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We didn't catch Loki. Fury had tried to catch up to him in the helicopter, but they had managed to escape that by shooting them down with Loki's powerful blasts of energy. We had lost the New Mexico headquarters, the entire building had collapsed in on itself. Plus, in addition to losing Clint, Dr. Selvig, and a few more agents to Loki that he had 'collected' along the way, there were over 50 agents still in the headquarters when it collapsed.

Anyone who did make it one was being reassigned to the helicarrier, and I was glad to be going home.

Steve POV

I was in the gym, like I always was on most days, punching the bag. I had let my mind wander, and visions of Peggy, ice, and the war circled through my head. A few glances of Ana came in too, and I wondered why.

Ana had been very helpful to see that I made progress in understanding the modern world in the last 6 months, but there was something, well, _off_ about her. Like she wasn't showing her full potential. I still wondered what her exact placement in S.H.I.E.L.D. was. She had told me that she was an agent there, but not the normal kind.

My mind swirled around and around, visions dancing in my head.

I couldn't do it. I punched the bag harder and harder, until it finally flew across the room from the force of my blow. I stood up straight, watching the sand pour from the bag.

Suddenly, I felt as if I wasn't alone. I turned, and saw Nick Fury walking towards me. He had been the one who told me how long I'd been asleep for when I first woke up, and as far as I knew, I could trust him.

"Are you here with a mission, Sir?" I ask him.

"I am." He replies.

"Trying to get me back in the world?" I ask. "I thought that was Ana's job."

"It is, Captain." Fury replied. "But this is greater than that. We're trying to save it."

I look up at him, confused.

"There's an envelope back at your apartment." He simply says. Then he turns and walks out of the gym.

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Soon after I am on a quinjet (S.H.I.E.L.D.'s version of a hi-tech helicopter) headed to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mobile base. Another man is with me, he says that his name is Agent Phil Coulson. He seemed like a nice guy, and I could tell right away that he was a Captain America fan.

"It's an honor meeting you." He says. "I mean, officially. I watched them thaw you out."

I didn't reply, the air in the quinjet grew tense. Phil also realized this, and he didn't say anything else.

I looked out of the window to see what appears to be a huge aircraft carrier.

"That's it." Phil says, breaking the awkwardness.

We land on the flight deck, and as I step out of the helicarrier, Nick Fury and a woman with short, bright red hair walk up to greet me as I the quinjet powers down.

"Welcome on board, Captain." Fury says, and holds out a hand for me to shake. I take it and give it a firm shake.

"It's good to be back, sir." I reply.

"This is Agent Natasha Romanoff." He says, gesturing to the girl beside him. I give her a small nod, and she returns it without emotion.

Another man in a purple button up shirt walks up to us.

"Captain, "Fury says, looking at the man. "This is Dr. Bruce Banner."

"Nice to meet you." I say, extending my hand.

"He hesitantly takes it. "You too." He says barely above a whisper.

"Well, now that we're acquainted, let's get this show on the road." Fury says, and then turns and walks away from me and Dr. Banner.

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I had never thought that an aircraft carrier could fly. But I had to admit, when I saw it – the helicarrier, as I heard some of the crew call it – lift out of the water, I was impressed.

Bruce and I watched the giant propellers lift the giant carrier out of the water and into the air, and then walked inside. I didn't know where I was going, so I let him lead.

He took me to what looked like the main bridge of the carrier, where I saw that Fury was stationed around many mechanical looking screens with projected images on them. The sheer amount of technology in this room alone was alien to me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Bruce roll up the sleeves of his shirt. He must have been a little claustrophobic too.

Fury turned and saw us, and started to walk over to us, but when I heard a door open behind me, he stopped.

I turned, and saw a young girl walk onto the bridge. Her uniform is navy blue, with a white star in the center of her chest. Red and white stripes go in vertical lines around her torso. From the way she was turned, I could tell that her uniform had a hood. But it wasn't her uniform.

It was _my _uniform.

She was looking down at some kind of device on her arm, and it caused her hair to fall over her face, concealing her identity. But not for long.

"Ana." Fury said, and she looked up, right at me.

It _was _Ana.

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**I'm trying so hard to remember what exactly happened in the movie (for I am one of the few who have only seen it once) so please excuse me if I make a slight slip-up. I made this chapter extra-long, for those of you who couldn't wait to see what was going to happen. **


	4. Wasted Effort

Ana? But, then, why is she wearing my uniform? Or, at least, a version of it?

Unless. No. It couldn't be. Dr. Erskine's serum that was used on me was the only serum that they had, right?

But… I was asleep for 70 years. That would've been more than enough time to replicate the serum.

But why didn't she tell me? She had been helping me adjust to the world for over 6 months and she didn't have time to tell me that she was a _super-soldier? _Surely in all of the time that we had spent together she could have mentioned it?

I was mad, but then I realized why she had kept it from me. The very reason that she had been assigned to help me was why she hadn't told me. She was afraid that she would overwhelm me with it like this advanced world did.

I fall back a step with the sudden shock of everything. Barely three seconds have passed since Ana walked into the room.

It made perfect sense now. Why Ana was sent to help me, why we shared so much in common, everything. Because she was _exactly _like me. And that was why something seemed off about her too, wasn't it?

"Cap?" Dr. Banner asks. "Are you okay?"

Instead of answering, I look back up at Ana, whose face has completely drained of color. I can see the fear in her eyes, but of what? Is she afraid that I would be mad?

I might need some time to take it all in, shocked, surprised, but mad? No. I'm not mad. I understand why now, that she kept it from me.

"Yeah." I say, keeping my eyes on Ana, who is still in shock.

"Captain, Ana," Fury says, cutting into our confrontation. "Why don't you go inside and clear everything up between the two of you?"

I looked over at Fury, whose look insisted that I comply, and then sighed and turned to walk past Ana and into the inner weavings of the helicarrier, my mind still reeling from the information.

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Ana POV

I can't believe it. At first I am mad at myself for not telling him. I should've told him the first time he met me. He would've had time to adjust to the news. But now, with the whole 'Tesseract' ordeal, I didn't know that he would be able to accept it. To accept _me_. I had let my hero down.

My eyes are locked on Steve, and I know that they show complete horror at what I have done.

"Cap? Are you okay?" Dr. Banner asks.

Steve looks up at me, and his expression is unreadable to me.

"Yeah." Steve answers, his eyes still on me.

"Captain, Ana," Director Fury says, but I am still focused on Steve. "Why don't you go inside and clear everything up between the two of you?"

Steve looks over to Fury, and then turns to walk past me, into the door that I came through.

I stay still for a moment, taking shallow breaths. _He hates me now. I didn't tell him, and he hates me. What have I done?_ I think to myself.

I look up at the small crowd of people surrounding me. _More like judging you._ My mind criticizes. I can't help it, but my eyes start to water.

I turn around before anyone can say anything to me, and slowly follow Steve into the helicarrier.

I can see his silhouette sitting at the end of the darkened hallway; the only lights are the emergency lights that line the ceilings.

I walk, still slowly, up to Steve, who is running his hand through his hair. He turns to look up at me, and I can see, even if I am only imagining it, the betrayal in his eyes.

I can't help it. I start to cry. I have let him down. My hero, my counterpart, my…brother, in a way. I kept a secret from him, and now I have to pay the consequences for it.

"I'm so sorry, Steve." I sob.

His expression becomes one of confusion, and he stands up. "For what, Ana?" He places his hand on my shoulder.

"What?" I say, wondering why he isn't yelling at me. "Aren't you mad? That I didn't tell you?"

"Ohh…" He says, realization dawning on his face. He pulls me into him to wrap me in a hug. "Of course not. I promise." He leans down to look me in the eye. "I'm not mad, Ana. I know why you did it. _I understand._"

I nearly go into shock again. I wasted all of that self-loathing on nothing. Plus, I think that might kill Phil after this is over, for making me feel this way. I sigh, and lean into Steve, suddenly exhausted. He wraps his arms around me again.

I try to control myself; I don't want to be embarrassed right now. Super-soldiers aren't supposed to cry. There's just something not right about it. I'm supposed to be the strong one. The one that others come to whenever they need help.

But I can't stop crying. There is just something in the way that Steve hugs me, comforts me, that makes me feel as if I could pour out all of the stress and pain that I have ever been through, and that he would listen.

I finally find the strength to stand stop crying, and I look up to meet Steve's eyes.

"Are you okay?" He asks, smiling softly.

I smile back softly. "I will be thank you." I say. "How about you?"

"It might take some time to get used to the idea of you being a super-soldier, but I'll get used to it. Besides," He says, wrapping his arm around me and turning to walk down the hallway. "It'll be nice to have someone who finally understands me."

I smile, and then remember that Steve just got here, and knows nothing about the layout of the helicarrier. "Do you even know where you're going?" I ask?

"Nope." He says with a grin, and I turn him down a hallway to take him to the bridge.

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"I knew that something was off about you from the moment we met." Steve says after a while. "I just never imagined that it was because you were like me. I thought that I was the only one."

"I did too." I reply. "With you being gone, I thought that there was no one else on earth who would truly understand what I was going through. I felt so alone, until they found you."

"You thought that you had it bad," Steve says. "I _knew_ that I didn't have anyone."

"But you had your friends." I say. "Being the youngest member of the team doesn't really help either. Teenage super-soldier is probably not a good combination."

Steve chuckles. "Well, if you felt that way then, then how do you feel now?"

"Much better." I say. "It's a whole world's difference between now and six months ago."

"Well, I'm glad that I can help." Steve says, as a door opens in front of us and step onto the bridge.

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**A/N: Sorry that I haven't updated in so long; school started, I was playing sports, and my friend got me addicted to Tumblr. Like I said: SORRY.**

**But, since I was on Tumblr so much, I made a blog for Liberty, and am currently posting the first part of the story to see how it pans out on there. Here's a link if you want to follow!**


	5. Liability

As we walked onto the bridge, Steve looked absolutely amazed. His eyes grew wide at all of the amazing new technology that he probably couldn't even wrap his mind around.

Director Fury was already there at his command station, making sure that everything on the helicarrier was running smoothly. Bruce had just come in through another door, and was walking around nervously. Agent Hill stood at the second-in-command's post, giving orders to the crew.

"We're all clear, sir." She said.

Fury looked down at her. "Good." He replied. "Let's vanish." I knew that meant the ship's cloak was activating, and that we would soon disappear from the sky and would be seen as nothing more than the clouds above us.

"Reflection panels engaged." An operator said, and Fury turned around.

"Gentlemen." He said, addressing Dr. Banner and Steve. I walked over and took a seat at the conference table. "Ana." He said, nodding to acknowledge me.

Steve walked up to Fury and took a wallet out of his back pocket. He pulled a ten dollar bill out and handed it to Fury. I wondered what that was about.

Steve walked on down to the front of the bridge, probably to examine the rest of the controls. I lifted my gaze to watch Fury and Dr. Banner.

"Doctor, thank you for coming." Fury said, extending his hand.

"Thanks for asking nicely." Dr. Banner said in return, shaking the Director's hand. He looked down. "So, uh, how long am I staying?" He asked.

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear." Fury replied.

"And where are you with that?" Banner asked, and then walked over to a balcony, where Fury gestured down to Phil. I stood up and walked over to stand next to Fury.

"How'd it go?" He whispered to me, watching Steve walk around the control center.

"Good." I replied. "He's not mad, just in shock.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet." Coulson replied, crossing his arms. Steve walked back around, and was looking curiously at the exchange. "Cell phones, laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, its eyes and ears for us."

Natasha was also on the bridge, I had just realized, and was crouching down next to a computer panel with a picture of Clint pulled up. I had forgotten the close bond that they shared; she must've missed him terribly.

"It's still not going to find him in time" She said, looking towards Fury.

"You have to narrow your field." Dr. Banner explained to Fury. "How many Spectrometers do you have access to? He asked.

"How many are there?" Fury asked.

"Call every lab you know." Dr. Banner started, "Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. Allroughphotic tracking algorisms cluster ignition." He explained, and I blinked a few times; for once feeling just as lost as Steve. I looked down at him, and found him looking up at me; confusion plastered on his face.

"I don't know." I mouthed to him. He nodded, and then turned back to look at Director Fury and Dr. Banner.

"At least we can rule out a few places. Do you have anywhere for me to work?" Dr. Banner asked.

"Agent Romanoff, can you show doctor banner to his laboratory, please?" Fury said, turning to Natasha, who was walking over to us.

"You're gonna love it, Doc." She said; walking past him, and he turned to follow. "We've got all the toys."

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I walked over to one of the balconies, and watched as Agent Sitwell pulled up a computer screen with Loki's picture on it.

"I mean," I heard Phil say, and I turned to see him and Steve talking. "If it's not any trouble."

"No, no. It's fine." Steve replied.

"It's a vintage set." Phil explained, and I realized that they were talking about his Captain America trading cards. I snickered, clearly enjoying Phil's inner fangirl showing itself.

"Took me a couple of years to collect them all," He continued. "Near mint." He described. "A little foxing around the edges, but –"

"We got a hit" Agent Sitwell said, turning around in his seat, and we all turned to him. "67% match." He turned back around to look at his screen, and Phil walked over to him. "Wait, cross match. 79%."

"Location?" Phil asked, standing behind him, and I walked down the steps to stand beside Steve, waiting to see what would happen.

"Stuttgart, Germany." Agent Sitwell said. "28 Cooling Straza. He's not exactly hiding," Sitwell remarked.

"Captain, Liberty," Fury said, and Steve and I turned around. "You're up." We both took a deep breath, and I turned to look at him; suddenly excited. This was our first mission together, and Captain America's first mission in the 21st century.

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When we reached Stuttgart, Germany, Loki had already had a group of people gathered outside. They were kneeling before him.

Steve dropped down before I did. He had told me to wait until there were less people in danger before I came in. I tried to disagree, but even Natasha said that it would be a good idea to wait.

Loki had been about to blast a man when Steve interfered and reflected the energy blast back to Loki, which knocked him down.

"You know? The last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing." I overheard Cap say to Loki over my earpiece.

"The soldier." Loki stated, and stood up. "The man out of time." People around them started to stand up.

"Now?" I asked Natasha.

"Wait a second, Ana." She said, getting ready to fly the quinjet over to the scene.

"I'm not the one who's out of time." Steve said, and Natasha pulled the quinjet up to them, and I lowered myself down on a wire, and landed beside Steve.

"And look, you brought your 'protégé'." Loki said, eyeing the quinjet.

Natasha turned on the intercom system and lowered one of the guns from the bottom of the quinjet. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

But he wouldn't have it. Loki fired his scepter right at the quinjet, but Natasha pulled away right in time. Steve threw his shield at Loki, which knocked him off balance, and then ran forward to catch it and throw a punch at Loki.

For a second, I didn't know what to do. I just stood there like the idiot I was.

"Help the people, Ana!" Natasha yelled at me over the intercom. "Let Steve handle Loki. He's experienced more hand-to-hand combat than you." She quickly explained.

I ran over to some people who were still on the ground, and pulled them up and pushed away from the scene. I turned back to Steve and Loki, right as Loki knocked Steve to the ground his shield on the other side of the courtyard. I ran at Loki and my shield came out, and flung it as hard as I could at him.

My shield caught Loki in the side, and he gasped as his breath got knocked out of him. He turned towards me, and fired his scepter. I blocked the blast with my shield, but when I looked up Loki was running at me, scepter glowing blue.

I didn't have time to react, and he hit me across my face with his scepter, cutting my cheek. I fell down on the ground, stunned by the blow.

I rolled over to find that Loki had returned to Steve, and put the blunt edge of his scepter on his head.

"Kneel." He said, keeping his head down.

Suddenly Steve grabbed the edge of the scepter and spun around, kicking Loki in the face. "Not today." I heard him say, and Loki fell back, thrown off balance.

"He's all over the place." I heard Natasha say over my headpiece, as she had steadied the quinjet and was trying to get a good shot at Loki, who had knocked Steve across the courtyard.

I got up, but my vision was blurred. I put my hand on my head, and tried to clear my head. I looked up at Loki, who was walking over to Steve.

"Agent Romanoff." I heard a familiar voice say over the intercom, "You miss me?" Which was followed by AC/DC music. I rolled my eyes as I realized what that meant: Tony.

I hadn't seen him since the procedure, but I had heard enough about him to realize that the man who turned me into a super-soldier wasn't the same man in everyday life. In fact, I was surprised that Fury had even let him oversee the procedure in the first place.

Steve, Loki, and I all looked up, shocked, as Tony flew around a building in his Iron Man armor. He fired a blast at Loki, and then landed in front of us.

All at once, a multitude of weapons appeared from his armor, all pointed at Loki. "Make a move, reindeer games." He said as Steve and I walked up to him.

Loki sat defeated, and he raised his hands, his armor disappearing. Tony's weapons retracted into his armor. "Good move."

"Mr. Stark." Steve said to Tony.

"Captain." Tony replied. "Squirt." He said to me.

"Hi again, Tony." I replied.

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"Are you sure you're okay?" Steve asked as we flew the quinjet back to the helicarrier. He was looking at the cut on my cheek.

"Yeah. I'm sure." I replied, looking down. When did Steve become overprotective of me?

"Okay, but make sure to get it checked out when we get back to the helicarrier, okay?" He asked.

"Okay." I said quickly, as I tried to get him to stop babying me.

He sighed, and then looked at Loki. Then he turned to Tony. "I don't like it."

"What, rock of ages giving up so easily?" Tony replied, looking straight ahead.

"I don't remember it being that easy." Steve said. "This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow." Tony countered. "What's your thing: Pilates?" Tony asked. I sighed. Of course he would say something that Steve would have no clue about.

"What?" Steve asked, just as I expected, and he looked down at me, a question in his eyes. I just shook my head a little. I wasn't in the mood for questions at the moment.

"It's like calms the neck." Tony explained. "You might have missed some things when you were, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

"Tony." I said disapprovingly.

"What?" He said. "It's true."

Steve stared at Tony. "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in." he said.

"Yeah, there's a lot of things that Fury doesn't tell you." Tony said as lightning cracked outside.

"Where is this coming from?" Natasha asked from the controls. We all looked up, Loki included, and he even leaned forward in his seat. I looked curiously at him.

"What's a matter, afraid of a little lightning?" I asked, and Steve and Tony turned to look at him too.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." Loki said, and we all turn to exchange glances with each other.

Suddenly a giant thump rocked the jet, and we all looked up. Everyone started to move fast. Tony grabbed his helmet and put it on; Steve pulled his mask over his face and grabbed his shield. I reached for my bracelet, which was lying on a little shelf beside me. I grabbed it and clasped it on my arm, ready for anything.

Tony walked to the back of the jet and opened the cargo door, and we all looked at him like he was crazy.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked, looking questionably at Tony.

A man in blue and silver armor, and a red cape landed on the door, and walked up to Tony. I glanced over to Loki, who was looking up in shock at the man. Tony tried to blast him, but the man hit him with an odd looking hammer, and Tony flew back into Steve, and the man's hammer returned to him. I stood up, looking at the man.

I tried to run at him with my shield, not knowing what to do, but he flung his hammer at me, and I flew back across the floor, his hammer landing on my chest.

I tried to move, but I couldn't lift the hammer. It sat, unmoving, on top of my chest.

As I struggled, I watched as the man grabbed Loki and flew out of the jet, his hammer finally lifting off of me and following him.

Tony stood up. "Now there's that guy." He said, walking forward.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha asked.

Steve stood up. "That guy's a friendly?"

I pulled myself up.

"It doesn't matter." Tony said. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseracts lost." He continued to walk towards the end of the ship.

"Stark!" Steve called. "We need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan: Attack" Tony said, and then flew out of the ship.

Steve huffed, and then ran over and grabbed a parachute and began to strap it on. I did the same, but he stopped when he saw me. "Ana, no."

"What do you mean _no_?" I asked, hesitating in putting on the parachute.

"You can't go." He said.

"Why not?" I asked. "I can help."

"Do you not see that you got hurt the last time you tried to fight?" He asked. "You need more training before you do anything else. I can't let you do this." He said, his expression growing sympathetic. "I'm sorry."

"No." I said. "I can do this." I explained, my voice getting louder. "Give me a chance!"

"Ana, I'm sorry." Steve said again, and pulled the rest of the parachute on. I tried to put mine on too, but Steve ripped it out before I could stop him. I struggled to get out of the useless parachute as Steve moved towards the open door and pressed random buttons on the control panel next to it. The door began to close shut and he jumped out into the night right as the door slammed shut.

"Steve, NO!" I yelled at the door as I ran into it, banging my fists against it.

"Tasha, open the door!" I yelled, and waited for the door to open. But it didn't.

"Tasha?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, Ana." Natasha said. "There's no way that the door will open now. He broke the controls."

I cursed under my breath, and then turned and punched the wall, leaving a dent.

I would never be more than just a little tag-along, then, would I? I was a little sister. I was the weakest link. I was a _liability._

I would make sure that they would need me, the next time that something like this happened.

That they couldn't fight without me.

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**A/N: Sorry for the long time without an update, but this chapter is super long so I hope that it makes up for it.**

**The thing that held me up was that I was too lazy to get off my butt and watch the scenes from the movie. I'm sorry guys, but I hope you like this chapter!**


	6. Sparring with Legends

I cringed as Dr. Banner examined the cut in my cheek after we had returned from Germany. I was sitting on a table in his lab. It was about 3 in the morning, and I was surprised that Dr. Banner was still awake.

"Sorry." He said as he leaned over to a small table and retrieved a bandage.

"What?" I asked. "No stiches?"

"At the rate you're healing," He said, turning back to me and placing the bandage delicately over the cut. "I don't think you'll ever need to get stitches."

"Cool." I said, but then my face became downcast when I remembered once again why I was back here and Steve and Tony weren't.

"Hey." Dr. Banner asked. "Are you okay, Ana?"

"Yeah," I said, and then looked up and gave a small smile, "I'm fine."

He didn't say anything; he just looked at me. Suddenly he got up and carried a rag with my blood on it over to a waste dump. "You know," He said with his back to me, "'I'm fine' is one of the greatest lies that we tell each other." He turned back around to face me. "So what's really wrong, Ana?"

I looked at him, and I finally realized that he wasn't going to let it go.

"I thought you would've heard by now. They left me." I say, trying not to cry. I turned my face away from him. "Steve wouldn't let me fight. He locked me in the quinjet."

Bruce walked over and hesitated before he put his hand on my shoulder. "It's okay. There will always be more opportunities to prove yourself."

"But it shows what he thinks of me." I said, my voice starting to get louder. "He thinks that I'm just a weak little girl, but I'm a super-soldier too! I was made for this, and he's not letting me fulfill my purpose." I said, looking down at the ground.

"Then prove that you're not the little girl that he thinks you are." Dr. Banner said to me. "Prove to him that you're more than you were ever expected to be."

I looked up at him then, and smiled. "Thanks, Dr. Banner." I said, and he returned the smile.

"You don't have to call me Dr. Banner, Ana. Please call me Bruce."

"Okay." I said. "And if there's anything that I can do to repay you for, well, I want to say stitching me up, but I guess that wouldn't be correct." We both laughed, "Feel free to ask."

"Of course," He replied, "Well, actually," He said, scratching his chin, "I would like to get some blood-work on you, if you wouldn't mind."

"Umm… Okay." I nodded, and Bruce went to get some more supplies.

He came back and I sat with my arm extended as he poked a needle into a vein and blood flowed smoothly into one vial, and then another, before Bruce pulled the needle out and stuck a Band-Aid onto my arm.

Bruce got up and walked away, and I jumped down off the table, rubbing my arm. "Why do you need those anyways?" I asked as he slid the vials into a container on his lab table.

"I'm trying to find a cure." He stated.

"For the Hulk?" I asked, and he looked at me. "I mean the other guy?" I corrected myself, remembering that Bruce didn't like to refer to his alter-ego as the Hulk.

"What else is there to cure?" He asked as he turned on a machine and slid the vial of my blood down into it. "If I don't fix it, then bad things will happen to everyone. I'm sure of it."

I looked at him, wondering if he even considered learning to control the other guy. If he could, then he might help more people than he harmed.

"You told me that I needed to prove myself to Steve," I said slowly, and Bruce turned to face me; a question on his face. "Maybe you just need to prove to yourself that you're stronger than you think you are."

"I don't think that's the point, Ana." Bruce replied, and smiled softly, his eyes full of sadness. "The only way to fix this problem is to cure it."

"What if that's the point, Bruce," I continued. "Maybe you don't need to cure it; you need to control it."

Bruce just looked at me and didn't say anything.

Suddenly a voice came over the intercom system, "Attention crew members," The voice said, "All available hands on deck for prisoner transfer."

"They're back." Bruce said, looking at me.

I looked at the ground. "Goodnight Bruce." I said, and walked out of the lab.

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I was lying in bed, my face towards the wall, when I heard my bedroom door open, followed by footsteps. Steve was the only one who would come bother me at this hour.

I silently cursed; I _really _didn't want to talk to Steve. Not then, anyways.

I felt him sit down on my bed, and a hand touched my shoulder. "Ana?" Steve asked.

"Go away." I said quietly. "Talking to me is not a really good idea for you right now."

Steve pulled my elbow down, which caused me to roll over and face him. I looked up at him blankly.

"Are you going to hit me?" He asked; his eyebrows wrinkled like he was expecting me to punch him anytime.

"I'm seriously considering it." I replied.

"Well I'm sorry." He said, standing back up, and I sat up in bed. "I told you before; I don't think that you're ready for serious hand-to-hand combat. You saw what happened in Germany."

I looked up at him, and an ideal suddenly came to my mind. I stood up. "Come on." I said as I walked towards my door.

"Where are we going?" He said from behind me.

"To the gym. You said that I need more training, so let's go train." I replied as I started to walk down the hallway towards the helicarrier's gym.

"At four o'clock in the morning?" Steve asked, following behind me as I walked determined down the hall.

"Yep." I said as I kept walking forwards, my back to him.

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"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Steve asked as I stood in a defensive position opposite him. "What if you're too tired and I hurt you on accident?"

"We're both super-soldiers, Steve; I think that we both know that neither of those things will affect us that much." I said, keeping my stance.

Steve sighed, finally realizing that he had lost this fight, and sunk into a defensive stance. "If I hurt you Ana, tell me and I'll stop." He added.

"Sure." I replied solemnly, letting him think that I actually would.

We began to circle each other, and then I lunged at Steve, who blocked my punch. He swung at me, and I dodged as his fist swung hard over my head.

He started to kick me, but I scooted back and held my stance as Steve came towards me, a new passion for fighting in his eyes. I realized that he had missed this from the war.

His punches gradually harder and faster, and as a result so did mine. We fought back and forth, and I barely realized it when the door to the gym opened and Tony and Bruce quietly slipped in and stood watching us spar.

Steve started punching me in a row, and I held my hands up fisted in front of my face as defense. Suddenly I was hit with a hard uppercut to my abdomen, and I fell, gasping for breath, on my hands and knees.

Everything stopped for a second. I heard Steve suddenly take in a deep breath, realizing what he had just done, and I thought I saw Bruce take a step towards me, but Tony grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. He knew that this was our fight.

I saw Steve start to rush over to me, and I realized what I had to do.

"Ana –"Steve said, reaching me, his hand outstretched. "I'm so sor—"

He was cut off when I knocked his legs out from under him with a sudden kick.

He fell down hard on the ground, and I rolled over, popping up into a crouch. Steve looked up at me, astonishment plastered on his face.

He slowly rose to his feet, never taking his eyes off mine. "That was amazing, Ana." Steve said.

"Thanks, Captain." I said, smiling. "Do you think that I'm battle-ready yet?" I asked.

"Nope." He said, smirking. "You still have a lot more training to do."

"We have all night." I said, getting back into my defensive stance, and Steve did the same.

As we begun to spar again, I overheard Tony and Bruce slip back through the door, with Tony chuckling and whispering to Bruce.

The last thing I heard was laughing and, "Steve got beat by a girl."

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**Let me just say that I am glad that I added this chapter. First, I think that it was necessary in the plot line, and second, I didn't have to watch the movie. (I really enjoyed that part) **

**I do have a question for my readers, though. If there was a movie inspired by **_**Liberty**_**, then who would play Ana?**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


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